GENEVA—A United Nations panel has given governments a target of connecting half the world's poor citizens to broadband Internet by 2015.
The U.N.'s Broadband Commission for Digital Development also says at least 40 percent of households in developing countries should be hooked up to broadband within four years.
The panel representing industry, academia and governments issued the challenge Tuesday. It said broadband access needs to be affordable even in the most impoverished nations.
The head of the U.N.'s International Telecommunications Union in Geneva, Hamadoun Toure, says the targets are "ambitious but achievable" if governments work together with the private sector.
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